Mygazines: Good Idea, Too Bad It’s Illegal

Mygazines was a cool idea, offering free articles from a huge selection of magazines. How can they do this without getting sued? I wrote about this a few months ago, wondering the same thing. It was an incredible site, offering digital pages that turned and so many articles to read, without that pesky subscription, or newsstand cost.

Well, it was too good to be true. Folio magazine reported today on Romenesko that just weeks after settling lawsuits with dozens of publishers, the site has closed up shop. At one point this site had 127,000 registered stealers, er, members, who eagerly scooped up all of that free content. They tried hard to interest the publishers in being partners, but apparently this note was to no avail:

“In its closing note, Mygazines appeared to be holding out hope for a lifeline: “If you are a publisher interested in understanding more about our model and vision for the future of the publishing industry going forward, or to discuss our Business to Business model opportunities, please email us.”